Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Endorses Acupuncture

World renowned cancer center Memorial Sloan Kettering has endorsed acupuncture for relieving the side effects of radiation, chemotherapy and surgery – going so far as to produce a video outlining the benefits to cancer patients. Here at the Northside Holistic Center, we see many patients who are going through or are recovering from the effects of such therapies and we find the acupuncture is an exceptionally useful adjunct to oncological care.

Watch the video here.

Research in to Chinese Herbal Medicine and Cancer Reported on in Wall Street Journal

The famously conservative Wall Street Journal published an interesting and very positive article on Chinese medicine and cancer, focusing on modern research at Yale University, into the ancient technques which we use to treat cancer in our clinics.

The article, which can be read here, focuses on one of the many formula which we use called Huang Qin Tang. The researchers, parroting what we have known for thousands of years, found that in addition to treating the symptoms of cancer and the side effects of chemotherapy, the herbs

. . . also seem to bolster colon-cancer treatment: Tests on animals with tumors have shown that administering the herbs along with chemotherapy drugs restored intestinal cells faster than when chemo was used alone.

While of course acupuncturists are delighted for the recognition and interest by top scientists into our methods, we remain concerned that an overly reductionist approach may lead people to believe that there is a one-size-fits-all approach to cancer – something which is an anathema to the approach taken in Chinese medicine. Even, and perhaps especially, in cancer the approach taken by an acupuncturist is highly individualized to the patient and their type of cancer. Still, this remains a fascinating initial inroad into East-West cooperation which can only benefit our mutual patients.

Clinical Trial of Acupuncture for Joint Pain Linked to Breast Cancer Treatment

A Grand Rapids, Michigan oncology clinic has begun a trial to assess the utility of acupuncture in treating joint pain caused by the cancer treatment. Based on hundreds of other trials and my personal experience, I suspect this will be a successful trial.

You can view the original article here.

Chinese Herb Enters Trials to Treat Prostate Cancer

A commonly used herb in Chinese herbal formulae, Huang Bai has entered trials for prostrate cancer at the University of Texas School of Medicine, San Antonio. An article about this can be read here.

Adanki Pratap Kumar, a professor of urology in the University of Texas School of Medicine at the Health Science Center in San Antonio, discovered in his laboratory that there was something special about the extract -- from the bark of the Amur cork tree in China -- in combination with radiation treatments that seemed to make both work much better.

It is not surprising that this ingredient, which is in many of the formulae that we make patients with specific complaints and constititutional issues, would be found useful for issues such as cancer. Traditional Chinese medicine categorizes diseases as having specific traits and prescribes acupuncture points and herbal formulae which balance these traits. Cancer often has characteristics which this ingredient would be useful in treating.

Florida Acupuncturist Works with Cancer Pain

From a Florida newspaper comes this story which highlights an acupuncturist who treats cancer patients for the pain and symptoms associated with their disease. This is something that we, as acupuncturists, help our clients cope with on a daily basis. Quite frequently, this is true for those patients who are either currently experiencing the prodigious use of drugs and radiation, or who have completed courses of treatment but who are still feeling pain, fatigue and other symptoms from their therapy. (the video from this story was no longer active as of this writing).